Underground City - Netherlands

Netherlands

In general, many large railway stations house underground hallways featuring shops, restaurants, banks and money exchange offices. A striking example of such stations would be the main hallway of the Amsterdam central station, which connects to the city's metro system.

• Maastricht: Originally a casemate, the kazematten of Maastricht form a 14 km (9 mi) long network of tunnels underneath the western part of the city. This tunnel network has mainly been used for military purposes. The main construction period of these tunnels lasted from 1575 to 1825. The newest sections of the tunnel network was dug as late as the middle 20th century, built in the Cold War as a shelter for citizens in the event of a nuclear strike on the city. Another, far more extensive, system of tunnels with a length over 200 km (124 mi) and 20,000 individual corridors lies just west of Maastricht; this is referred to as the Caves of Maastricht (Dutch: Grotten van Maastricht). These man-made 'caves' were used as Marl quarries from the 13th century onwards. In World War II, these caves were used to hide large quantities of paintings from the Germans, even including the Nachtwacht. In 1944, construction started on a large public shelter that could have housed 45,000 persons in these caves. The project never saw its completion due to the liberation of Maastricht in the fall of the same year.